NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Touting a roster with seven new faces, a new head coach and two new assistant coaches, the Lipscomb women’s basketball team may be hard to recognize this year.

The Lady Bisons usher in a new era with head coach Greg Brown, the first time in 32 years a new face will roam the sideline, as Lipscomb held its first official practice today.

“It was good to have a longer time on the court,” Lipscomb head coach Greg Brown said. “Over the last week we have started to see improvement. We are starting to see mental toughness. It will be good to evaluate the rest of the week.”

Lipscomb has two seniors on the team in Hannah Phillips and Chelsea McMeans. Coach Brown looks for them to step up with the younger players.

“As seniors you look for them to control the locker room,” Brown said. “You look for them to lead and take the freshmen and develop them culture wise. Both of them bring a tremendous amount of energy and that should be every single day. They need to be able to take care of the intangibles and teach the intangibles.”

Also returning for the Lady Bisons are juniors O’Neisha Smith and Jess Reece. The sophomore class includes Jana Wright, Shanice Burnette, Sasha Robinson and Erika Thornsberry.

Phillips is the leading returning scorer as she averaged 11.1 points per game and will be in pursuit of the 1,000-point club as she has played to 726 career points. Phillips also hauled in 5.4 rebounds a contest as well. Robinson was second on the team with 4.8 rebounds per game with Smith a close third, 4.2 rebounds.

“The freshmen have a lot of opportunities to step in,” Brown said. “The way we’ll play will be conducive to them stepping in. They will need to identify their roles, accept them and we’ll move on from there.”

The Lady Bisons open with a home exhibition game on Thursday, Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. in Allen Arena against Freed-Hardeman. The regular season tips off on Friday, Nov. 9, with a 6 p.m. contest at Gardner-Webb in Boiling Springs, N.C.